Some NC cities rank high, but that could be changing.

(Axios, Alex Fitzpatrick) — Nearly half of Americans are now exposed to potentially dangerous levels of air pollution, per a new report.

Why it matters: The findings, which predate the current Trump administration, come as the White House is reconsidering EPA rules and regulations meant to curb pollution and promote cleaner air.

Driving the news: Just over 156 million Americans — 46% of the population — are living in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, per the American Lung Association’s 2025 State of the Air report.

  • That’s almost 25 million more compared to last year’s report, and the highest number in the past decade of the report’s history.

Between the lines: Extreme heat, wildfires and drought are degrading air quality nationwide, the Lung Association says. All have been linked to climate change.

  • Air pollution is associated with an array of health conditions, from wheezing and coughing to asthma and premature death.

How it works: The report uses local air quality data to grade and rank locations based on ozone pollution, daily particle pollution and annual particle pollution.

  • This latest report includes data from 2021-2023, “the most recent three years of quality-assured nationwide air pollution data publicly available.”
  • Ozone is a gas that, at ground level, is a harmful irritant. Particle pollution involves tiny airborne particles from wildfires, fossil fuel burning and more.

Zoom in: Los Angeles, Visalia and Bakersfield — all in California — lead the Lung Association’s new rankings of U.S. metros most affected by ozone pollution.

  • Bakersfield; Fairbanks, Alaska, and Eugene, Oregon, topped the list of those most affected by daily particle pollution.
  • Bakersfield; Visalia and Fresno, California, were the most affected by annual particle pollution.

Stunning stat: Hispanic people are almost three times more likely than white people to live somewhere with failing grades in all three categories.

The other side: Only one continental U.S. metro — Bangor, Maine — showed up on all three of the group’s lists of cleanest cities.

The intrigue: The “geographic distribution of air pollution” shifted eastward towards the end of the covered period, the report notes.

  • “The year 2023 … brought improved conditions to the West Coast but also a deadly heat wave in Texas and an unprecedented blanket of smoke from wildfires in Canada that drove levels of ozone and particle pollution in dozens of central and eastern states higher than they have been in many years.”

What they’re saying: “Clearly, we need to do more to control the pollutants that are impacting our changing climate and worsening the factors that go into the wildfires and the extreme heat events that are threatening our health, instead of thinking about how to roll them back,” says Katherine Pruitt, senior director of nationwide clean air policy at the American Lung Association and report author.